George's Journal

[George Farmer]

I've been punished for my laziness!

Over the last 12 weeks or so I haven't thinned out my Sagittaria platyphylla, I only been removing older, ugly leaves rather than pulling out whole plants. Needless to say growth has become very dense and the inevitable has happened - the smothering of the leaves has resulted in light deficient symptoms and a lot of the plants are dying.

I've removed around 50% of the plants and replanted the healthiest. Thankfully there's so many it doesn't really effect the look at all.

Just a lesson to learn from, it could have been a lot worse had I left it to go on.

I'm also having to start to trim back the glosso, it's migrating across the little "fences" I erected. Mmmmm.......I can hear that HC calling!

Time for the final photoshoot soon, once the sag fills in again. I'll keep you posted.

BTW coming up to 500 replies on this thread now! Cool.

 

[simonbrown403]

I'm also having to start to trim back the glosso, it's migrating across the little "fences" I erected. Mmmmm.......I can hear that HC calling!


BTW coming up to 500 replies on this thread now! Cool.

little fences what you used for them.

 

[Jen]

]Over the last 12 weeks or so I haven't thinned out my Sagittaria platyphylla, I only been removing older, ugly leaves rather than pulling out whole plants. Needless to say growth has become very dense and the inevitable has happened - the smothering of the leaves has resulted in light deficient symptoms and a lot of the plants are dying.

Ah-ha! So that is what happened to my echin agustafolious. I never thinned it out... I just kept shoving the runners back in to get it all full and thicl. Good to know!

Mmmmm.......I can hear that HC calling!

HC?

 

[pseud]

HC?

Hemianthus Callicthoides.

 

[George Farmer]

A few updates for you.

I'm experimenting a little with lighting and CO2. Instead of running a 5-2-5 photoperiod I've changed this to 9 hours straight. I'm also manually adjusting my CO2 to come on 1 hour before lighting on and off 1 hour before lights off thus saving me almost 70% CO2 consumption. I'm still running around 1 bubble per second so in theory my cylinder will last approx. five and a half months instead of two.

So far so good. This has been running a week now with good results. Plant growth seems identical at this stage although pearling is more intense towards the end of lighting. No algae so far. Saving lots of CO2! If things still seem good after a few weeks then I'll be investing in a CO2 solenoid.

On the aquascaping front there has been some minor amendments. I have reinstated the wood but this time it's more subtle protruding from the right side of the fern. I've also covered it in Java moss (a certain amount of influence from zig's wonderful example I must admit). The wood looks good but I'm not convinced if it looks better with or without. I've bought some more Anubias too, this has filled out the dark space to the left of the fern and is a definite improvement.

The glosso is still doing well and will need a good pruning this weekend. I will be having to remove it all soon I feel to prevent the lower plants from rotting. I'll just repeat what I did at the start of its life in my tank i.e. planting lots of individual plantlents, after all it only took a few weeks to form a full carpet - this is of I don't go for HC or even hairgrass possibly. Before this though I will be doing my final photoshoot very soon for next years contest(s). I'll post some pics soon so you can give me your valued feedback.

 

[George Farmer]

I've experimented with some wood again, this time with Java moss attached. I've also added some stems, just for "fun", they were only £1.69. Not too certain on the identity of them though, see here - http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=119517

What do you think, improvement or not? Be honest.

I think the weakest point is to the left of the fern, too dark. It looks great in "real life" though, really quite bright. I might have to fiddle with my lighting and camera.

 

[zig]

I need to invest in a solenoid as well, ive been running my lights 10 hours straight for months, after i got over the bba which i am convinced was down to bad substrate management not lack of co2 (the amount of gunk under the hairgrass was unbelieveable, and i have read that this is a common enough problem with the type of hairgrass i had....bba that is) anyway after i got over that i have been algae free even when running only with DIY co2 and running 10 hours straight, id say i cound run the lights even longer without any problems, but i do notice some plants have had enough photosynthesis at that stage and begin to close up, the P. Stellata and L. aromatica will be closed by the time 10 hours have been reached so there is little point in running the lights any longer IMO.

What you need to do with the darkside of the tank is get a "reflector" and angle it towards the light and the dark area, just play around with it and this will add more light to that area, you only need an f stop or so of light to make the difference between the seperation of the plants, basically a reflector is just a white piece of card, maybe 15x15 inches or somewhere around that size, it has to be white, an off white wont work as well, if that does not give enough seperation use a mirrored surface as your reflector, an auctual mirror or a card covered with the shiney side of tin foil will do the trick (be creative) do it from the side of the tank so it is out of shot and wont cause a reflection on the glass, another way you could do it is with a small camera flash but you would need to be able to hotshoe this seperatly from the camera, you could try adding another light source from the side of the tank to fill in the dark area but colour tempratures would begin to play a part if the source is only a tungsten bulb ie the bulb would come out yellow in the photo while the tank lights would be white, another way you could try it is to bounce a flash of a white card from the side but again you would need to hotshoe the flash seperatly from the camera, you would put the flash on its lowest setting so it only gives a little blip of light enough to just add some fill and not light up the whole shot.

Anyway you could try something along those lines but thats all it would take, you did mention someone being a professional photographer........well heres there chance.......

Dont know about the stem plants, it looks a bit to contrived into the perfect triangular shape, im just not sure maybe a different plant might work but i cant think of anything suitable right now.

 

[Jen]

Zig, you took the words right out from under my fingers! A reflector card would do the trick for that space, but you would need to find a way to make it permanent, so have to set it up every time you take a picture. If you have the space on the side to set up a small light, that would probably be the easiest. Do you have a flash light anywhere around the house that you could shine in to see if it works? Or get your wonderful aquarium helper of a daughter to stand with a little mirror to try and get the right angle.

 

[jimbooo]

hiya mate. to be brutally honest i dont like the stems, nice plant in itself (and no i have no idea what it is) but looks out of place in the set up. i do love the java moss wood though.

the sag on the left is still bugging me though. i personally would pull that left sag out and fill out with anubias. thats just me though and i dont want to keep banging on about the same thing. tank looks like it's perfectly balanced though, something i'm rather jealous of at the moment. i'm pulling my hair out (excuse the pun) at the moment. i really hope santa delivers my bottle of gas i'll be a miserable sod over the next month if he forgets!!

 

[George Farmer]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

What do you reckon to the wood/moss zig?

I'm a little confused by the reflector idea. Do you mean a piece of white card or mirror etc. outside the tank on the left, literally angled so the downwash of light from the tank lights gets reflected onto the dark area? I've never heard of such a method (I'm no photographer though).

 

[Jen]

I'm a little confused by the reflector idea. Do you mean a piece of white card or mirror etc. outside the tank on the left, literally angled so the downwash of light from the tank lights gets reflected onto the dark area? I've never heard of such a method (I'm no photographer though).

That's exactly the idea. It is a method used in TV, movies, and a ton of photo shoots to add light on a subject where light won't reach naturally (the underside of trees, if the subject has their back to the sun, but needs the front lit). It is very effective.

Here's a diagram (because I love making diagrams!)

I love the moss on the wood. It's not too obtrusive... it's just there. It's the perfect spot for it.

 

[Discomafia]

I like the moss on the wood, although I feel it isn't really making an impact in the tank, meaning I can't really see it. I would prefer it to be jutting out a bit more, but that's just me. And as for your new stem plants, I feel they look good, but I'd like to see a little more colour in the tank, some red or pink perhaps. Not sure how that'd look with the cardinals you have tho'.

 

[Jen]

I think the moss would be more prominant without the stems behind it. It gets a little lost in them.

 

[zig]

Jen has the right idea with the reflector, try it with a mirror, generally if you can see the difference visually the camera should pick it up and it should help give some seperation to that dark area, i dont mind the dark area as such you just need to bring out a bit more detail that is currently lost, you dont need to totally brighten this area up or anything (in fact you might not like that) just bring out a bit more detail.

Yeah i like the wood and the moss, the moss will lighten up a bit more in colour as it grows under the brighter light (im sure you know this) im still not sure about the stems, not sure if they work.

 

[oldwhitewood]

I've experimented with some wood again, this time with Java moss attached. I've also added some stems, just for "fun", they were only £1.69. Not too certain on the identity of them though, see here - http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=119517

What do you think, improvement or not? Be honest.

I think the weakest point is to the left of the fern, too dark. It looks great in "real life" though, really quite bright. I might have to fiddle with my lighting and camera.

I LOVE the subtle additions to it, you have really made an improvement there, the tank looks more interesting to my eyes now, as I'm a big fan of java moss. I like the stems you have going and as long as you maintain your triangular layout it should be really good. The only thing that I see that I would change is the left hand side, where the sag is. I would either find some protruding bits of bogwood and cover them with moss, so they jut out towards you (replacing the sag) or carry on with anubias across the left hand side also. You have said though this looks different in real life and it may not need it but personally that's what I'd do. This is totally my own opinion though and I dont profess to being an expert or anyhing.

You have a wonderful glosso carpet there Amano would be proud of that.